Cod data to undergo peer review next week

Data suggesting that populations of Gulf of Maine cod continue to diminish will go through an external peer review on Aug. 28 and 29 at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth, N.H.

Jessica Trufant The Patriot Ledger @JTrufant_Ledger

Data that federal regulators say suggests that populations of Gulf of Maine cod continue to diminish despite severe cuts in fishing quotas will undergo an independent review next week to aid in developing future management practices.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced that new, preliminary data show “virtually every indicator” of the cod stock’s condition declined or worsened in 2013.

Through underway surveys, the agency found that the population of spawning Gulf of Maine cod has plummeted to between 3 and 4 percent of what it would take to sustain a healthy stock. Juvenile cod populations are also at an all-time low.

Russell Brown, deputy director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, has said the spawning cod levels were between 13 and 18 percent just two years ago.

Brown stressed that the data detailed in a 95-page report still needs to go through an external peer review, which has been scheduled for Aug. 28 and 29 at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth, N.H.

Six members of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee and one external member of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will conduct the review of both old and new data and methodology used.

The panel will then prepare a report of its review for consideration by New England Fishery Management Council in developing management measures for Gulf of Maine cod.

The public is invited to participate in the meeting through an online webinar or telephone. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday and 8:30 a.m. on Friday.

The Secretary of Commerce declared a Northeast groundfishery disaster in 2012 due to the significant quota cuts anticipated in the 2013 fishing year for key groundfish stocks, including cod.

The New England Fishery Management Council, the regional arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service, in May 2013 reduced the cod catch in the Gulf of Maine by 77 percent.

Congress in last year’s budget appropriated for New England ground fishermen $32.8 million in disaster relief aid, $14.5 million of which will go to Massachusetts.